CHAPTER 9
Behind every man now alive stood thirty-five ghosts, for that was the ratio by which the dead outnumbered the living.
There were twice as many ghosts as there had been last September.
They were calling it Second Impact. The story was that a tiny meteor, travelling at nearly the speed of light, had hit Antarctica. That collision had released more energy than the impact which had killed the dinosaurs. The angular inclination of the Earth had shifted. The pole had melted. Tokyo had flooded as tsunamis rolled up from the south and Japan now sweltered in an endless summer.
That story was a lie. But the effects of that terrible experiment of Dr Katsuragi were all too real. And then man had turned on man. The nuclear weapons had flown, and India and Pakistan had scourged each other. Tokyo had been destroyed by a smuggled nuclear weapon. The Impact Wars had killed just as many as the impact.
Gendo had not been particularly concerned, about that, all things considered. When you'd technically participated in a saiyan planetary invasion - albeit in a decidedly rear-echelon position - some things were not really all that shocking. Giant fireballs destroying cities occurred on a day ending in a "-y" when General Nappa was in the area and entertaining himself. Why, the humans here should be lucky that no giant humanoids had been stalking through their cities blowing things up with energy blasts.
He'd just been careful to keep her safe, and had found an apartment in a small town well away from any major urban centres which might be the targets of nuclear attack. A large bomb might kill him, and even a small one would hurt Yui, even if she wasn't that close to it. That could not be tolerated.
On the other hand, Yui hadn't taken things so well. She'd been pale and fearful, even once he'd gotten her out of Tokyo. She'd been fretting and uncertain, scared by the calamity that had struck the world. She'd even expressed vocal doubt about her research and whether it was the right thing to do - and whether it might have in some way led to Second Impact. She seemed to be taking things hard.
And now she was throwing up most mornings, on top of everything else. He hoped she'd pull herself back together soon.
"Gendo," Yui said, brooding over the paper. It showed the latest reports of the India-Pakistan war. "Do you wonder why we're doing this? All of this? All this conspiring, I mean."
He looked blankly back at her. "No. We're doing this so you can get cloned saiyans and we can have an army of soldiers who'll conquer this world and save my species."
She looked both fond and annoyed. "Of course, you have a somewhat different viewpoint." She sighed. "I think your viewpoint is better than mine. Better than the one I used to have, I mean. I'm not sure I have it anymore."
Gendo paused, his spoon halfway to his mouth. "What?"
"I think… I think my father's plans are wrong. I don't know if they'll work anymore… and I don't know if I want them to work," she said, each word dragged out of her.
"What?" He was getting worried now.
"The blood sample from Adam. There were anomalies. It was… it was much more active than Lilith's blood," Yui said reluctantly. "And it was obvious. I… don't know if you made it worse, but even if you did, it was already unsafe. We would have known if we'd been allowed to access the samples from the First Angel. But SEELE were stopping us - Tokyo lab us, that is. But the Dead Sea lab must have known. And they ordered the Lance removed, only to be returned for the Contact Experiment."
Yui looked him in the eye, gaze hesitant and flinching. "My father must have known. The Committee must have known. They must have planned Second Impact."
Gendo blinked. "You don't know?" he asked. "I thought you knew-"
"Ha! Far from it. I'm too young… and too female, I suspect… to be that senior in SEELE," Yui said blackly. "I knew that the Dead Sea Scrolls foretold a great disaster, but I thought it would be Adam waking up on his own. Something we couldn't avoid. But… the old men induced this." She laughed bitterly. "Probably because they're old men. They want the ascension to come in their own lifetimes. Rather than at the right time. We could be ready - but no, those selfish bastards have gone off half-cocked."
"What are you saying?"
"Damn the old men, Gendo!" Yui's eyes were suddenly alive, flashing with anger. "Their ascension comes at too high a price! I want to rule the world, but there has to be a world to rule! I want to become a god, but that means I need subjects! I want power, but power needs a purpose!" She clasped his hands. "And… their ascension isn't something I want! Not any more! Not when it'd mean I'd lose you! Bugger instrumentality if it'd mean what fragment of me remained had to spend eternity without you!"
Gendo nodded. "Yui," he said softly. "I could just kill them all."
"Tempting," Yui said. "Very tempting. But unfortunately, those old men have already started the timer. The children of Adam are coming - and SEELE are the only people who can prepare the defence. They need the Angels dead as part of their ritual."
He cracked his knuckles. "So. I kill them later."
"The solution isn't always killing." Yui paused. "I mean, yes, it is in this specific case, but I just wanted to make that point. But yes. They die… later. And we snatch their thrones out from under them. And rule this world as king and queen."
Gendo nodded. He liked the sound of this.
"And," Yui added, suddenly nervous again, "... there's another reason for me to doubt their great plan. Gendo. I'm… I'm pregnant. And what if the child takes more after you than-"
"... what?" His mind locked up, and all he could do was stare at them blankly.
"I said, I'm pregnant."
Mechanically, stiffly, Gendo made his way to the window and slid it open. "Excuse me a moment," he said, stepping out of the third storey window.
"... reports are coming in of catastrophic fires sweeping over Indonesia - no doubt another consequence of Second Impact. We now go live to-"
"I'm back," a soot blackened Gendo said, climbing in the window.
"You were gone five hours!"
"I had a lot of feelings I needed to vent." Gendo paused. "Now, where were we? What do you mean, you're pregnant? How did that happen?"
Yui blinked. "The normal way! We've certainly been doing all the right things!" She swallowed. "And… I thought we weren't biologically compatible, but… well. Apparently I was wrong," she said.
"But… but…" Gendo's mind was running in circles. "You're so weak. And human. And not a saiyan. I didn't… how? How?"
"I don't know," Yui said, running her hands through her hair. "I honestly don't know. And you know how much I hate having to say that."
His mind refused to accept it. He'd had his hopes set on the idea of cloning - but he could breed with a human? "But it's been years," he tried to argue. "And it hadn't happened!"
"Really, trust me. I was shocked. I have no idea why it's happened now. From the time, it must have been around Second Impact. Maybe even the night of it," Yui said. "But… look, there's pretty clear evolutionary evidence that humans have evolved to be worse at having children."
"Huh?" That made no sense, and he said as much.
"Hah, yes," Yui said, eyes suddenly interested. "Given how tough you are, I suspect female saiyans never had a problem with childbirth. For humans, it's very risky. Motherhood is… well, biologically speaking, the uterus is actually one of the least hospitable places for a developing…"
He didn't want to be a father. He had everything planned out. He and Yui would seize power with their clone legion, and then they'd spread out. They'd find the other saiyans out there, and he'd be able to continue his species. There was no space for a half-breed in that plan.
"... and then the progesterone produced by the placenta enters the mother's bloodstream, altering it to prevent the foetal rejection, so effectively the child is controlling the mother to…"
What did he do? What could he do? Yui was acting all erratic, doubting SEELE's plan. Things were no longer steady. The path seemed unclear.
"... and that's before I get into the other changes to the mother's body that are very expensive and not safe! So yes. There's a good chance that… well, we just got lucky beforehand and any pregnancies auto-terminated before I even noticed I was pregnant. Or it might have been something to do with Second Impact. Or your exposure to Adam. I'd just discounted the possibility before because it seemed too ridiculous. But it's not."
Gendo paid attention once again to his lover recounting all the ways that humans had apparently a reproductive system that seemed evolved for a different species - perhaps one that got stronger every time it nearly died. "So what happens now?" he asked.
"Well, I'll find a doctor I can get plenty of blackmail material on to handle the check-ups and the birth," Yui said, with false casualness. "Goodness knows I can't go to someone who might blab to SEELE about any deformities our xenohybrid offspring might have. And I'll need to conduct my own research. Humans can't breed with chimps and they're our closest relatives! Why could I get pregnant from a space monkey man? How does the biology work? Oh, this is a little bit fascinating!"
"Is that what you're thinking about? Now?" Gendo said, numb horror in his voice.
"Of course!"
"Are you sure it's mine?"
"Well, it's either yours, or I'm the mother of the central figure of a new religion having immaculately conceived the messiah. You're the more plausible answer. Barely." Yui shrugged. "I'm more than willing to accept either result."
"Be serious!"
"I am entirely serious!"
The Human Instrumentality Committee were meeting.
"The Tokyo-3 initiative is in the Diet at the moment," said Mitsuhide Ikari, hands folded in front of him. "It will pass. In this time of national grief for the tragic destruction of Tokyo, the Diet likes the idea of a fortress city impregnable to outside attack."
"Excellent," said Dr Hood, nodding. "Then everything goes according to the scenario."
"According to the scenario," the rest of the Committee chorused.
"Keep us updated," Keel Lorenz said, peering at the other holograms through his cybernetic visor. He shuffled his papers. "In other news, our spies report that Yui Ikari has been purchasing maternity bras, a cot, and '101 Baby Names'. Intelligence analysts believe that she is pregnant, though a minority report opines she may be doing it to test our watchers on her."
The elder Ikari ground his teeth together. "Yes," he said grimly. "Yes, so I hear. I am… overjoyed."
"Congratulations," Keel Lorenz told him.
"I personally do not feel it is anything to be congratulated about," he said.
"I agree," Dr Hood said. "How will her maternity leave affect the timetable?"
"I believe we can mitigate it," Keel Lorenz said. "All shall proceed according to the scenario."
"According to the scenario," chorused the Human Instrumentality Committee.
Mumbai and Islamabad were irradiated craters - and yet they were still fighting in the Kashmir valley.
Sitting on a hilltop, Gerabanzo watched the clash between two scattered forces of light infantry supported by armour, and sighed. He was feeling very Gerabanzo today. He hadn't felt like this in years. He had got used to being Gendo. Gendo Rokubungi wasn't a low class warrior who'd been a fool and signed up for the Recon Corps. He was a powerful man, working for an influential conspiracy. He had a comfortable life with lots of good food and very little time spent in a cramped pod travelling from world to world with no room to stretch his legs.
Oh, and of course, an alien lover who was also a super-intelligent scientist with ambitions of world domination. He'd never have ever thought he would be lucky enough for that. The Recon Corps was not good for meeting women. Yui's only flaw was that she wasn't a saiyan.
Except now she was pregnant. With what she assured him was his child. But this didn't make any sense. He'd never heard of a saiyan half-breed. You got some other aliens that could breed with each other, but… surely not the saiyans! Not with this pathetic race that was running around below him in the valley, trying to kill each other with bits of not-very-fast-moving metal.
Was this his child? Really?
Gerabanzo snarled and began firing energy blasts down at both sides indiscriminately. It wasn't even enjoyable. Amusing, yes, as they ran around screaming and panicking, but not really enjoyable. This wasn't a challenge. He pounced on a tank, tearing off its turret and laying into people with it.
Not even hitting someone into a mountainside produced more than a momentary satisfaction.
Splattered with blood, he tossed the tank turret away, tossing energy blasts over his shoulder without looking. These humans went looking to kill each other. They were willing to die. It didn't make a difference if he did it or they did it to each other.
Kicking off, he leapt into the air, strafing a bridge and sending the armoured vehicles on it down into the water.
Damn it. Damn it all.
He had to trust Yui. He had to. Because if he couldn't trust her about this, what else couldn't he trust her about? He'd never get his clone army!
Anyway. He'd know. He'd never smelt another man on her, so he didn't have any grounds for suspicion there. If it truly was his child, then saiyan strength would show through! They would be far more than a pathetic human! And if he truly could have children with Yui… Gendo smiled to himself. Things would be much, much better than he could have hoped.
So much better.
Time passed, and Yui swelled up. Motherhood was meant to make people radiant and glowing, but in truth, by March she was just ill-tempered.
Chewing on the end of her pen, Yui glared at the screen in front of her as if daring it to disagree with her. She was not in a good mood. She wasn't sleeping well, and she felt fat and bloated and nauseous. In fact, she felt like a blimp.
And, worse, the moonlight was making her itch and the child started kicking even more at such times, which didn't help her mood. She'd excused herself from any visits to Hakone, on the grounds that no one was sure what the effects of pre-natal exposure to Lilith would be. She didn't know, though the thought did occasionally keep her up at night vis a vis 'the child's transformation into a giant monkey while inside her'.
But she couldn't spend all her time fretting about that. She had work to do. The Committee had made it entirely clear that she was expected to make sure she was ahead of schedule before she went on maternity leave, which meant she'd been pulling overtime for months now.
And things were progressing. She looked over the schematics for the progressive cutting machine that they would use to bisect Lilith, and the reports from the Chinese construction company that was working on it. The ETA for completion was still a year in the future, but it was taking shape, piece by piece.
There came a soft, hesitant knock at her door, along with the clatter of a dropped handbag. Yui sighed.
"Come in, Kyoko," she said, massaging her temples.
The other woman stepped in and then slammed the the door behind her. Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu's eyes were reddened, and she had a soggy tissue in her hand. Even by her standards, her clothes were a mess and she was missing one shoe.
"What's the problem?" Yui asked, eyes widening in surprise.
Shaking, Kyoko sat down in front of her, sniffling. "Y-you're my best friend," she began.
"Of course," Yui lied.
"I need your help. I really, really need it. I think I'm pregnant," Kyoko said in a tiny voice. "And I know you are and… and I need your help. You have to know what to do. Please."
Oh. Oh dear. Yui declined to make any remark about the other woman's unsuitability for breeding, but she did think it rather hard. "What makes you think that?" she asked.
"I-I-I've missed three… you know, thingies…"
"Periods?" Yui asked.
"Yes," Kyoko said, blushing. "And I'm p-putting on weight. And a pregnancy test c-came back positive."
That was a fairly suggestive set of evidence, Yui had to agree. "Well, congratulations," she said.
"I can't be a m-mother," Kyoko blurted out. "I can't even look after m-myself! Wh-what if I… I dr-dropped them or… or…"
Well, someone had needed to say it, and Yui was glad that it had been Kyoko. "Well, there are… alternatives," she hinted.
"No," Kyoko said, squaring her jaw. "There aren't."
"There are," Yui said kindly.
"There aren't. I'm Catholic."
"Ah." Yui forced herself to smile. "Well, I'm sure you'll be a wonderful mother," she lied. "After all, don't you have your husband to help you?"
"Well… yes… but…" Kyoko dabbed at her eyes, looking painfully uncomfortable.
"What's the matter?"
"I don't understand how it happened," Kyoko said plaintively. "He said it was one of his safe days."
Yui opened her mouth.
Yui closed her mouth.
"Kyoko," she said kindly. "Can you please repeat that?"
"Pieter said it was one of his safe days. You know, one of the days where there's no risk of pregnancy."
"Two things. Firstly, that's not a reliable means of contraceptive practice," Yui said, trying to resist the urge to bash Kyoko's head into a wall. "Always use hormonal or barrier contraceptives if you want to avoid becoming pregnant."
"Oh."
"But more pertinently," Yui continued, in the same level voice, "men don't have 'safe days'."
"They don't?"
"They don't. Why did you think they did?"
"Well, I just assumed that since we do…" Kyoko began.
"You're a genius in multiple scientific disciplines. How could you not know this?"
"I went to an all-girls Catholic school," Kyoko said in a voice more appropriate to a mouse than a grown woman. "And my mother never wanted me associating with boys."
"I… I see," Yui said. For once, she was lost for words. For goodness sake, her parents had intimidated or assassinated every boyfriend she'd picked out for herself before she met Gendo, and she hadn't had any problems with this. Anyone in a relationship with Kyoko should probably be investigated, because they had to be taking advantage of her herness. "Well, I'll tell you what. I'll put you in contact with my gynocologist. And help you file your maternity leave request."
Kyoko wrapped her up in a snotty, wet embrace. "Oh, Yui," she sobbed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so lucky I know you! Oh, and the children will probably be in the same school year and they'll do everything together and they'll be best friends just like us! Isn't that wonderful?"
"Yes," Yui said, with a rigid smile. "Just wonderful. Yes."
Naoko Akagi glared at Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu's filed report for maternity leave. It wasn't in her handwriting. She could tell, because the ink colour in use wasn't pink and the 'i's hadn't been dotted with hearts. Also, the words stayed between the lines, everything was spelt correctly, and it was all legal and correct.
Instead, it was ruthlessly precise, incredibly neat, and the sort of handwriting used by someone who had come from a very wealthy family with a lot of personal tutors.
A muscle started to twitch under her left eye. The project was going to be losing two of its best researchers to maternity leave. They were working together to ruin her. She knew it. Young women and their unprotected sex and their complete failure to realise how important this was.
She was going to kill her someday. Oh yes. Naoko was going to kill that smug maternity-leave taking bitch someday.
"Ikaaaaaaaaaari," she whispered, squeezing her stress ball with both hands.
It might have made Naoko feel slightly better to know that things were disharmonious in the Ikari-Rokbungi household.
It would probably have not made her feel any better if she had then found they were arguing about baby names. The sonograms had been… inconclusive… as to the child's sex, which meant there were twice as many names to argue about. It was either a very feminine boy, or a masculine girl.
"For the last time, I'm not calling any son of mine... that!"
"He's my son as much as yours!" Gendo retorted.
That only produced an laser-intensity glare from Yui. "You get an equal say in what to name the child when you put an equal amount of effort in! And you don't have them crushing your internal organs!"
"But what's wrong with it? Kakarot is a proud, strong traditional saiyan name! If the child is a boy, he should be glad to have such a name!"
"It sounds utterly ridiculous," Yui said, folding her arms. "It'll draw attention at school and everyone will make fun of him for it."
"Why?"
"I would have made fun of someone with such a name," Yui said firmly. Her eyes crossed. "And now they're kicking me," she complained. "This happens whenever we argue! Ow. Ow. Stop that, damn you."
Gendo perked up. "Ah! Mark of a good strong saiyan!"
"I'll mark you if you keep that up!" Yui said, staggering to somewhere to sit.
"No you won't. You're not strong enough for that."
"So help me I will find a way," Yui snapped. "I am sure no one else has a baby that kicks that hard! They said it was meant to feel like butterflies in my tummy! Not like they're trying to use my ribs as a percussion instrument." She yanked up her t-shirt. "Look!"
Gendo looked. "I don't see anything," he said.
"Well, of course they choose to stop now," she grumbled.
Approaching her, Gendo cuddled up to his grouchy pregnant girlfriend. "I'm sure it really hurt," he said. "After all, a saiyan baby will be stronger than you."
"That means nappies are your duty," she said quickly. "I can't wrestle a baby and change a nappy at the same time."
Curses. "And what about girl names?" he asked.
"I like 'Kongou'," Yui suggested. "It would honour her saiyan heritage too."
"How on earth would it do that?" Gendo retorted. "How could any saiyan…"
"Half-saiyan!"
"... or half-saiyan take herself seriously with a name like that!"
Yui groaned. "No, please. Don't start this again."
He sighed. Yes. This argument wasn't going anywhere. "How about a compromise?" Gendo suggested. "How about you get to pick the name for a boy, and I get to pick the name for a girl?"
Yui narrowed her eyes, then relaxed. "Fine," she said, smiling again. "Why not? That seems fair."
"Do you have any thoughts?" he asked.
Yui smiled. "I like the name 'Shinji'," she said.
"Shinji?" Gendo asked contemptuously. "But…" he trailed away.
He got a flat stare for that. "You were the one who suggested I get to name a boy," she said. "Now, your turn. If it's a girl, what would you call her?"
Gendo nodded. He was warming to the idea of a little girl. Yes, a girl with her mother's brains and her father's sheer power. A little girl he could teach to fight, who'd make him proud - and who knows, maybe even find another survivor of the saiyan race and then he could at least be the grandfather of some three-quarters saiyans.
He knew the perfect name for his perfect little princess who'd one day lead a legion of cloned warriors in galactic conquest.
"Reice," he said.
